Audience reviews
12 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
scudgreen
Tree of Palme is a strange movie.
Visually, it's a great film. The artwork really conveys how barren the setting is, so when the characters are in civilized towns they feel more alive and crowded. The animation is also top notch and fluid, which is consistent throughout the movie. Even in the slower scenes, there are small movements that appropriately convey what characters are feeling.
Plotwise though, it's kind of all over the place. Some of the characters are pretty straight forward with their motivations. There are quite a few themes you'll find easy to understand about parenthood and abandonment. The creators obviously had a bunch of ideas they wanted to explore about children, control and feelings of loss. But they kind of just happen and then move on. Without any spoilers, the ma…
Read at the sourceJet_Suzuyaki
What an experience this film is!
It's halfway between an enchanting children's film, with its retelling of the Pinocchio fairy tale, and a borderline horrific film, with very harsh, dark themes and atmosphere, which makes for a very peculiar mix to watch. In the end, however, it's still very enjoyable to watch, despite its confusing nature, because it's so original that you don't really know what to expect.
In terms of the subjects dealt with, it's really varied and well-handled, with the quest for what it is to be human (with Palme's unattainable quest and the paradox of his inability to understand human beings), parenthood (with the various parents who abandon their children for their own interests), free will (with the puppet motif that also applies to humans), grief, selfishness (wit…
Read at the sourceDaubeny117
A Tree of Palme definitely a strange anime, and one that is clearly not perfect, but also a fascinating piece of art. At first glance it may seem like a movie for children, and some elements of it almost feel like one, but it definitely isn't. It's very bleak, at times melancholic and at others very violent, both phisically and psychologically, it's dense and can be hard to follow, and has very mature themes.
It's an anime that everybody will experience differently, because while some of it has the potentiel to resonate with you very deeply, some other elements are just not very good.
One one hand, the plot can be confusing at times, there are too much elements in the movie and not enough time to develop all of them as much as they need to. A few characters (Mu and Pu) are unnecessary…
Read at the sourcedetoxjuicy
It is sad how much this film had the potential to be a masterpiece, but the constant change in tone after the first half possibly killed it.
The vast cast could be narrowed to give more depth to the main characters, especially Palm, as his actions towards the end did not seem credible. He now starts to talk more and have a specific desire (to be a human), so the first initial problem (Taking the Egg of Touto to Laala) becomes less important, and you need to care about his new personality and desire. The same applies to the Sol Lady, and although I personally liked and even cried for her past, it did feel kinda of rushed.
Everything was there to make a good story, and the writes did know that and tried to show as much as they could, but doing this they created a movie with a deep lore, but…
Read at the sourcektulu007
Palme no Ki is a film that first aired in 2002. It was the début work of Palm Studio. Which I only know as the studio behind Genshiken. The film was written and directed by Nakamura Takashi. Who also did animation work on Nausicaa. How does this film hold up? Let's take a look and see.
Story:
We open with a woman battling through a group of dudes. We then quickly cut to a large tree where a humanoid robot, Palme, is hanging. He activates and begins moving. A little dragon sees this and fetches an elderly man, Palme's creator. The old man worries about what kind of tree Palme might become, since he's apparently constructed in such a way that he'll become a tree at some point. A tree shaped by its memories. It turns out that he was built to look after the woman who used to live in that ar…
Read at the sourceemeraldtree
A Tree of Palme is a complicated anime that should really be viewed as "Part One" and "Part Two". With that in mind, I will be reviewing the movie not as a whole, but as two separate parts.
"Part One" of the film starts off slow, and really spends time on the atmosphere. The film feels like a trippy 70's poster, with creative backgrounds and creatures. Palme starts off the story as a silent puppet, constantly breaking. He's thrown into a confusing setting, with lots of energetic characters and action. I found it enjoyable how out-of-place hes character is and his inability to understand others.
There's some action, and a lot of running away from some guys who are after Palme's oil, which all seems simple and enjoyable. Unfortunately, that all goes away after Palme has a existential cris…
Read at the sourceTroydm
This is one of the most underrated anime movies in all history.
One of unique kind. If you are expecting some nice story with happy ending just stop reading this.
It's one genre that stands out of all of the rest, it's Dystopian Sci-Fi anime. If you've watched Now and Then, Here and There or Gin'iro no Kami no Agito or Green Legend Ran or even Ergo Proxy and liked them, then you will definitely like this one, it's just plain brilliant, unique and unforgattable. I won't start explaining the story that mostly is so unique that you can't fully understand it without throughout thinking about it. It touches many aspects of human psychology like despair, fear, wanting to be acknowledged by people you love. It's brilliant story of puppet wanting become human. It's one of the greatest works of Tak…
Read at the sourcesen_mcgrath
This film was bizarre. From character and setting to the story itself, it was downright strange. The story is basically that of Pinoccio, but quickly dispel the Disney images from your mind. This is the story of an emotionally disturbed puppet with a sever lack of empathy who is posessed by an equally emotionally disturbed amazoness who wants to become a real boy. And while that might sound interesting, trust me, it isn't. The ending impression is a feeling of 'what did I just witness' and 'I'm glad I didn't actually pay money to see that/I hope I can get a refund.'
The imagery is stunning, and gorgeous, such as Palm and Popo in a canoo on a river filled with glowing lotus. The setting was reallly beautiful. However, that juxtaposed with a dying woman being attacked by what honestly look…
Read at the sourceSunshineNoka
At first I thought this movie was going to be a very happy and fantasy version of the classic 'becoming human' plot, but boy was I wrong about that assumption. A Tree of Palme is definitely a much darker and deeper version with a small fantasy twist.
This movie definitely isn't for everyone. I was only able to watch it with sparks of interest because of the deepness and strange visuals and symbols of the movie. The animation and music were the highlight of the movie, for some reason the music always had me in tears even when it wasn't a part where I was supposed to cry!
The visuals, animation, and music definitely make up for what was the problem of the movie. The story and characters. I managed to try my best and kept up with most of the story, there were some loose ends left here and t…
Read at the sourcefuddles
Story is not easy but it is deep and good.
Animations are lovely.
Sound is ok.
Not everyone will understand this movie and will say " i dont like it"
I really like this film very much.
Read at the sourcePseudonymous
This has got to be one of the most trippy, esoteric, surreal and all around bizarre things I have ever witnessed. You know how creepy and weird all the freaky dreams of giant oozing teddy bears that sing and destroy hospitals Tetsuo had in Akira? Imagine two hours of THAT being used to tell a Pinocchio "I want to become a real boy!" story, except the story is very confusing and Pinocchio is highly manic.
Watching the movie, you can see the underpinnings of what in concept would be a decent story, but Takashi Nakamura mangles it so much with bland characters, muddled storytelling, heaps of unexplained occurences, and dragged-out scenes that result is 2 hours of vegetative confusion as the viewer watches, their brain struggling to comprehend what's going on by gaining what little cognitive…
Read at the sourceslpless
I didn’t know about Tree of Palme until it was licensed by ADV. Many of the advertisements gave me the impression that Tree of Palme would be a serious and mature title, despite the childish looking character designs. After watching I was right for the most part, its just I could barely keep awake when watching.
The first thing I noticed and probably most people, was the animation. It is undeniable beautiful and very smooth. Backgrounds in particular were well done and quite nice to look at. I guess since this is a movie the animation is expected to be amazing. The character designs are reminiscent of Fantastic Children, being fairly simple and childlike. Personally I’m not really a fan of this kind of design but I guess it works. Sadly, the animation and art was the only thin…
Read at the source